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Forum:Rewrite for the Manual of Style
__NOEDITSECTION__ The new, updated Manual of Style has been put in place on of July 19th (Thursday). Voting on this matter is now over. The policy is now in effect. Talk to me. NCIS Wiki 12:46, 21 July 2007 (UTC) ---- Chip proposed a good point. All the history of the charactrer should be in the past tense. But what about the characteristics and traits? Transformers is a current thing unlike star wars which is a long time ago. What do my fellow users think? [[User:General Grham|'General Grham' ]]Talk to me. NCIS Wiki 12:41, 14 July 2007 (UTC) :The MoS needs a rewrite. Period. Its copied, word for word, from Star Wars Fanon. Thus, it at least needs to be Transformerfied. As for the tense, go look at any featured article (meaning its well-written, a model of what everything else should be)and see what tense it's written in. Present day, too. Unless what is happening in the article is happening at this instant, then you need past tense, whether it was a second, a minute, or a year ago. And, if it is right now, then it is now not right now, because right now has passed. Thus, past tense is to be used, except when your are saying, Megatron's adventures are sure to continue later in life, or something to that effect. Phobi[[User talk:Shadowphobia|''Speak To the Almighty...]] 01:40, 13 July 2007 (UTC) 13:47, 14 July 2007 (UTC) ::I'm changing my mind. Everything should be arranged as following: *'Intro': Past or Present *'History': Past *'Personality/Weapons/Charecteristics/Etc: Past of Present Phobi[[User talk:Shadowphobia|''Speak To the Almighty...]] 01:40, 13 July 2007 (UTC) ::You don't have to ask me to know how I vote. Unless characters are dead, their introductory paragraphs should be written in present tense, because that doesn't offend my writing sensibilities. --ItsWalky 17:32, 15 July 2007 (UTC) ---- Here is the official policy. Change it annd work with it until everything is done with it. BTW: I know about the ship thing, but there are no ship classes in canon transformers, so I can't make any examples. [[User:General Grham|'General Grham''' ]]Talk to me. NCIS Wiki 15:20, 14 July 2007 (UTC) I changed it to random names of ships (non Star Wars) Phobi[[User talk:Shadowphobia|''Speak To the Almighty...]] 01:40, 13 July 2007 (UTC) =Discussion= Thoroughly read the new MoS before giving feedback. Good? Bad? =Manual of Style= We here at Transformers like things to be uniform and everything so this '''Manual of Style' is here to set things straight. For information on the most basic writing techniques and styles, which are used here, see Wikipedia's Manual of Style. Below are some basic Transformers formatting do's and don't's. Layout guide All in-universe articles should be structured as follows: #Main article #Stub #Behind the scenes (notice the capitalization) #Appearances #See also #External links #Succession box #Category For more details as to what each section of an article should contain, see the Layout Guide. Naming articles There are some rules regarding how articles on Transformers Fanon should be named. Article names should be in singular form, not plural. Read Transformers Fanon Wiki:Naming Articles Using the # Do not use the # in a link unless you intend to direct to a section of that article with the title after the # as a section. When linking to articles, particular books and guides with numbers denoting their order, omit the # and simply put the number. Otherwise the software will look for that number as a section title on the page. Headings Use the (heading) markup for headings, not the ' ('bold') markup. Example: : This is a heading which produces: :This is a heading If you mark headings this way, a table of contents is automatically generated from the headings in an article. Sections can be automatically numbered for users with that preference set and words within properly marked headings are given greater weight in searches. Headings also help readers by breaking up the text and outlining the article. *Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading, and leave all of the other letters in lower case. *Avoid links within headings. *Avoid overuse of sub-headings. Usage and spelling Though the readers and editors of Transformers Fanon speak many varieties of English, we prefer standard American English spelling, punctuation, and word usage. This is the variety of English used in the first printings of most primary sources. If the title of an article differs in different varieties of English, the American title should be the article title, with alternate names being used as redirects (for example, Starsabre redirects to Starsaber). Tense All ''in-universe articles should be in past tense. Keeping articles written in past tense provides consistency and flavor. Despite this, do not include phrases like "His ultimate fate is unknown" or "what happened to the ship after that is a mystery". For more, see the tense policy. *The Main Article must be in past tense. Intro, personality, traits, weapons, etc can be past of present. Preferrably not future, thought ;]. Phobi[[User talk:Shadowphobia|''Speak To the Almighty...]] 01:40, 13 July 2007 (UTC) Italics Class and ship names Names of specific spaceships should be: *Capitalized *Italicized *Used with the definite article :e.g. :"The ''Atlantis was from Earth." :NOT "Atlantis was from Earth." Class names are italicized only when a spaceship in the class bears the same name. The definite article may be used, but it is not required. *When a ship’s class is a modifier, use a hyphen: ::"Quasar Fire-class Bulk Cruiser" *When it is a noun, do not use a hyphen: ::"Ships of the Victory class were often overlooked" Do not italicize a class name when: *Using the class name and type, but without "-class" ::"Venator Battle Cruiser" *It is being used alone as a noun ::"Most models of the Battlehawk were lightly armored and ran with a small crew." :::Atlantis is a transformers ship. The rest aren't, but no canon could go there. [[User:General Grham|'General Grham' ]]Talk to me. NCIS Wiki 13:11, 17 July 2007 (UTC) Quotations Quotations should follow this general format: *If the quote is less than a paragraph long, simply including it in the article's body with "and" will suffice. *If the quote is at least a paragraph in length, or a dialogue, insert as a block quote: ::"Block quotes are indented with a colon at the beginning of each new paragraph. Each paragraph needs only one colon, not a new colon for each line (word wrap will accomplish this automatically). ::New paragraphs, however, do require their own colon." Please be sure to provide as much information as possible (for instance: source, page if applicable, and characters speaking if applicable). Units of measurement For consistency, all in universe articles should use metric units of weight, mass, length, and other measurements. ::-If we're just going to copy the ideas from Star Wars fanon, then you should force everyone to convert measurements to the "Mega-Mile" system. What a mega-mile is, I have no idea. But I do know that it's not Mega-''Kilometer.'' Sarrc 18:07, 15 July 2007 (UTC) :::No one knows what a mega-mile is, so why use it? Also, metric is used in every country except the US. Why not make it more international? [[User:General Grham|'General Grham' ]]Talk to me. NCIS Wiki 18:56, 15 July 2007 (UTC) ::::This is a Transformers fanon wiki, so I think we should use Transformers units of measurement. --ItsWalky 19:03, 15 July 2007 (UTC) ::::(And since this is a Transformers fanon wiki, we can, you know, make up how long a mega-mile is.) --ItsWalky 19:04, 15 July 2007 (UTC) :::::We can't make up canon measurements. They've already been made.[[User:General Grham|'General Grham' ]]Talk to me. NCIS Wiki 19:58, 15 July 2007 (UTC) :::Mega mile is canon in that they used the term once in a single episode and never again. They never said what it's length is, or the other terms within the system. Isn't expanding and theorizing on a throw away name-drop the genesis of fan fiction? Sarrc 20:10, 15 July 2007 (UTC) ::::I would think so. If we're not allowed to expand on the given canon, then why is this wiki allowed in the first place? Also, the final option on this vote, though I'm not in favor of it anyway, is misstated. There are plenty of Cybertronian measurements which are known entities. For example: Cybertronian units of time :Oh, that's not really an option. I put it there almost as a joke to fairly represent all the options listed in this discussion. Sarrc 20:27, 15 July 2007 (UTC) :::::Hmm. I'm not sure...metric makes sense...but...Lets leave out unit of measurement and allow any measurement to be used. If using transformer measurement, some type of common measurement (metric or american) in parentheses. Phobi[[User talk:Shadowphobia|''Speak To the Almighty...]] 01:40, 13 July 2007 (UTC) :::There's no reason to use metric, except that it's a hold over from the Star Wars site. If you can't show me why to advocate that form of measurement to stay "In Universe" like Star Wars did, then there's no justification to go against the common sense here. This is an American centric wiki, that's why we use the American spelling format as opposed to the UK's. Like "color" instead of "colour." Sarrc 19:18, 15 July 2007 (UTC) ::::Truth. Lets vote... American Measurement Metric Measurement Any Form of Measurement #Phobi[[User talk:Shadowphobia|''Speak To the Almighty...]] 01:40, 13 July 2007 (UTC) #Metric users can use metric. US customary users can use costomary. I don't think it matters anymore. [[User:General Grham|'General Grham' ]]Talk to me. NCIS Wiki 19:58, 15 July 2007 (UTC) #I vote for freedom! --ItsWalky 20:14, 15 July 2007 (UTC) #I'd have voted sooner, but it's been up for twenty minutes, thought for sure it'd be closed by now.Sarrc 20:20, 15 July 2007 (UTC) ::That was when there were only three users, so voting was quick. [[User:General Grham|'General Grham' ]]Talk to me. NCIS Wiki 00:29, 17 July 2007 (UTC) Vague Unexplained Cybertronian Measurement ONLY (I.E. Mega-Miles, Mega-Inches, Mega-Feet, etc.) Categorization All articles should be categorized. See our Transformers Fanon Wiki:Categorization page for more infomation. :Is the red link supposed to be symbolic? Sarrc 20:25, 15 July 2007 (UTC) ::I'm beginning to like you, Sarrc. You have an sense of humor similar to mine . Anyway, as you probably realize, its a policy we have yet to make but that needs making. Phobi''Speak To the Almighty...'' 01:40, 13 July 2007 (UTC) :::Then I suggest this either be removed from the vote until it's written and added separately at a later time, OR write it now and have the vote extended a day or two to allow people the chance to agree. We can't approve of an aspect of the style guide that doesn't exist yet. -Sarrc 01:42, 19 July 2007 (UTC)